Don’t Know Much about Geography, but I Do Know Something about Healthcare. gov

Don't know much about geography

Don't know much trigonometry

Don't know much about algebra

Don't know what a slide rule is for

But I do know one and one is two.

Lyrics, by Sam Cooke, of What a Wonderful World, based on book by Kenneth Davis,  Don’t Know Much about Geography

I don’t know much about geography, but I do know something about healthcare.gov

I  know 14 states run their own state exchanges (California, Colorado,  Connecticut , Hawaii, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New York,Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington);  two (New Mexico and Idaho)  run their exchanges using the federal exchange infrastructure; and the other states  depend on the federal government to create and manage their exchanges.

I know most of those states who run their own exchanges are blue or purple states, while most of those who let the federal government do their exchanges are Red states.

I know the state exchanges are functioning better than the federally run exchanges. 

I know the federal government has yet to get its technological act together after spending roughly $1 billion and 3 ½ years to prepare for healthcare.gov.

I  know the federal government says that healthcare.gov will be ready to go by November 30,  that December 15 remains the drop dead date for enrolling,  and that by January 1 everything will supposedly be ready to go.

I  know that almost everybody – Democrats and Republicans and the public at large – consider the rollout a “disaster.”

I know the enrollment period will be extended to March 1, and that nobody will be penalized for not signing up. 

I know that penalizing someone for not enrolling when they have no means of enrolling makes not  sense.

I know the middle class making more thant $46,000 and not eligible for subsidies will rise up in anger when they learn their premiums and deductibles are higher and often unaffordable because of services they do not think they need.

I know that one function of healthcare.gov,  the ability to browse and compare health exchange plans, was changed so that this information was not available until after people had enrolled.

And I know that the number of expected enrollments are behind schedule,  that only about 25% of those who create accounts have so far enrolled, and that the number of plans being cancelled because of the inability to meet ObamaCare standards far exceeds those being enrolled.  It is estimated 16 million policies will be cancelled over the next several months;   how many people will enroll or take Medicaid plans is unknown, but it likely to far short of 16 million.

In the meantime, as of this date, October 27,  the  Advisory  Group says 116,000 people have picked a private plan  or enrolled in Medicaid.    The federal government estimated 500,000 would have done so by October 31. 

So I know the government is behind schedule.

Here is the Advisory Board tabulation of accounts created and people enrolled.

Entity                                   Accounts        People Enrolled 

Federal government                     __               __             

California                              125,959             __

Colorado                                 18, 174             395

Connecticut                            10, 768            3847

Hawaii                                      1, 181            __

Kentucky                                 51,482           26, 194

Maryland                                40, 703            ___

Massachusetts                        25, 703            ___

Minnesota                              18,917             3,769

Nevada                                  38,393             1,757

New York                                  ___             37,030

Oregon                                   11,500               ____

Rhode Island                            7,482            2.652

Vermont                                 8,739              1,588

Washington                          89, 273             35,578

Note:  __ means no information is available.

Tweet:   Red states depending on healthcare.gov lag behind blue -purple states running their own exchanges in enrolling people in health exchanges.